Re: win32 compilation of make 4. 0 source code‏

That example method is a device to perform this .FEATURES test
without inserting it into an existing Makefile.

The syntax errors I was seeing were occurring when attempting to insert this
test

into an existing Makefile, full of Targets and command sequences.

If this feature is used it would be at the top of an existing Makefile,
before any targets

are evaluated.
I also want to know if there is a debug mode within make
in which the Makefile filename and Line Number
(some Makefiles are huge and distributed over several subordinate Makefiles)
is matched to each automatic variable evaluation within a Target evaluation.

As a separate related issue, I was try to echo the .FEATURES
information, since one of the its it claims to display mentions its
Else If capabilities. However, every time I tried to echo the data I
received a syntax error. What would be an example of a Makefile
contents which would display the .FEATURES information ?

There are a number of ways. Here's one that works with newer versions
of GNU make (this is POSIX shell syntax):
echo 'all: ; @echo FEATURES is $(.FEATURES)' | make -f-